Author: kirstyes

I’m sure the astute among you will notice that I, @kirstyes, haven’t had much involvement in #OTalk of late. New members may indeed wonder who I even am.

When I helped co-found #OTalk six years ago I was in a very different place in my life. I was lecturing in OT and OTalk was a way for me to keep in touch with lots of different aspects of Occupational Therapy and to look at engaging with Occupational Science too.

Tuesday nights were part of my routine and if I wasn’t hosting a chat I’d be taking part in it. It was an extension of my day job AND a leisure activity.

Now I’m back working part time in clinical practice in a specialist field and I started to find that #OTalk started feeling less like fun and more like work. Not in a bad way and the team and the community are awesome but I was finding my capacity for it had diminished.

I won’t bore you with the details but I’ve had my battles with depression and fatigue and I’ve had to consider where to spend my time and energy.

Those of you who have stuck with me through my absence will have spotted that what time that I don’t work I spend reading and doing booky things and may know I harbour an ambition to be a published fiction author. Well it is time for my previous valued occupation to step aside and to be replaced with writing and editing.

I’ve loved my time on the team and have been honoured to work with some fabulous people past and present. It has been great to see the student interns develop into competent practitioners and join the team as full members and I hope the team continues to take on new OT talent and support the OT community with their CPD.

I have asked the team if they are happy for me to still share a connection with #OTalk as Sponsor (I’ll continue paying for the ongoing techie side of things – I’ve also offered research proofreading skills). I’m off to do some CPD this weekend at the MS Trust Conference and in time maybe I’ll pop back to take part in the odd chat.

I hope some of you still consider staying with me on twitter. Especially if you like books, after all if I get one finished I’ll need some people to buy a copy 😜.

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ke Hogwarts – OTalk will always be there to welcome you home. We all belong to the Order of the Phoenix.

So, it is with some sadness and also much gratitude that I say goodbye to OTalk and welcome space for a new balance of occupations in my life.

How have you found saying goodbye to valued occupations that you have taken part in?

Mental health is an area we have core knowledge at as OT practitioners. We at least sometimes work with patients with mental health diagnoses across the lifespan- from kids to criminals. And for those of you who work in forensics/mental health settings, I am pretty sure this TEDx Talk will hit pretty close to home to you. Although I don’t claim to be a mental health expert, I think it is an awesome TEDx talk to do a media club on because we might see criminals with mental illness across different stages of life. From pediatrics point of view, it can be prevention in form of education of making appropriate life choices. From forensics mental health point of view, it can be relapse prevention of preventing them to commit crimes again. From geriatrics point of view (my current setting), it can be rehabilitation to maximize their quality of life.

This #OTalk sees Chris Smith – @Alliedhealthwfs – from Allied Health Workforce Solutions on hand to talk about the benefits and challenges of becoming a locum, especially if you are fairly newly qualified.

“Much of the CPD provided by The Occupational Therapy Show has previously been clinically focussed so that delegates can take what they have learnt back to practice to provide a more enhanced service to their clients.

My sister, also an OT, but not a Twitter faring one,came up with this topic. I thought it would be fun for us to share our OT journeys through recollection of some key #OTMoments, it might also be helpful for those looking to study the profession, and those newly graduating, and well, all of us as a little reflection.